This fall, housing affordability will once again be at the forefront of our political discourse in Denver, but for many of our neighbors it is on their minds every day. On Election Day, Denverites will decide the fate of the group living ordinance passed by Denver City Council earlier in the year.

They’ll be voting on 2F, a citizen-led initiative attempting to repeal the council’s decision that allows up to five unrelated adults to live together in a single home. And around the same time, and on the heels of the state passing House Bill 21-1117 to allow for affordable mandates on rental units, Denver City Council will be implementing new affordable mandates for all new housing stock based on recommendations just released by the City, combined with a potential quadruple increase in linkage fees on all commercial property development and small residential development — an onerous “tax” that goes into the city’s affordable housing fund.

We are certainly in the middle of a housing crisis, but no housing crisis has ever been solved with restrictive mandates or linkage fees. New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles have some of the highest linkage fees and most robust affordable housing mandates in the U.S. — and yet those cities have only seen their income inequality and housing affordability problems skyrocket, not subside

Simply put, as municipalities impose more costs, rules and regulations upon housing developers, the time and expense to build housing only increases, and that added cost gets passed on to the market-rate payers.

This makes development only possible for big, institutional developers, boxing out locally owned firms. This is not how you build a truly inclusive, affordable city.

And yet like so many of our seemingly intractable problems, an easy solution exists right in front of us. Rather than force more density upon communities that don’t want it, why not just add more density where density belongs? Better yet, let’s convince our cash-strapped Regional Transportation

Simply put, as municipalities impose more costs, rules and regulations upon housing developers, the time and expense to build housing only increases, and that added cost gets passed on to the market-rate payers.

District (RTD) to sell all of its real estate — most of which is adjacent to train stations and bus stops — to developers who commit to increased affordable housing in trade for unlimited density with no parking requirements at transit. Build by bus stations. Put cranes by trains. That is how we will solve our housing crisis.

Convincing RTD to part with its much-coveted real estate at transit would accomplish three things. First, it would generate almost $1 billion that is desperately needed to upgrade its existing train and bus fleet, making mass transit more attractive to us all.

Second, using the tools offered in HB 21-1117, it would give local municipalities an opportunity to incentivize — rather than mandate — affordable housing from developers. And third, it would provide “double affordability” as many of the at-transit residents would forgo owning a car and the $9,300 per year expense (on average) that car ownership comes with Follow those three simple steps and the Denver Metro Area will see an immediate rise in its overall housing stock.

And we already know this works. In 2018, myself and other representatives from the RiNo Art District and neighborhoods nearby RTD’s 38th and Blake Station worked directly with former Denver Councilman Albus Brooks and Mayor Michael Hancock’s Planning Department to enact Colorado’s first-ever “density bonus” system when the 38th and Blake Zoning Overlay was implemented. The formula we executed was simple: developers could build higher and add more units than their base zoning allows in trade for including permanent affordable units as a percentage of all new housing units built.

Nearly four years later, the results have been nothing short of astounding as hundreds of dedicated affordable units have been built alongside over 2,500 market rate units already constructed or under construction — and all in a former industrial corridor that had virtually no housing whatsoever. And even though RiNo’s housing growth has had its fair share of criticism for not generating “enough” dedicated affordable housing, the critics fail to understand that all housing improves our housing affordability challenges in Denver. If we had more supply, our existing supply wouldn’t be so expensive. This isn’t, “If you build it, they will come.” It’s actually, “If you don’t build it, they are coming anyway” — and there aren’t enough units to go around.

This fall, when Denver City Council debates linkage fee increases and how many affordable units to mandate in all new housing developments, let’s not forget that we already have a formula to generate more housing that incentivizes — instead of penalizes — smart development. We just need to throw RTD’s well-placed real estate into the mix for high-density development, and we may finally have the affordable city that our elected leaders are endeavoring to deliver.